e² design is an ongoing PBS series about the pioneers and innovators in the field of sustainable architecture, and how their work is producing solutions to pressing environmental and social challenges. Now entering its third season, the series features compelling stories from around the globe: Beijing to Nova Scotia, Ladakh to New York. Each episode examines the built environment's effects — both ecological, and social — and the design innovations that can reduce buildings' contribution to climate change.

e² design is narrated by Brad Pitt.

e² design season three
Episodes explore: a profile of the Aga Khan’s Al-Azhar Park in Cairo, Egypt, a 500-year-old dump-turned-“urban lung”; Canadian architect Brian MacKay-Lyons, who applies Nova Scotia’s vernacular pragmatism to projects around the world; Melbourne, Australia’s transformation from a tired, vacant city into a thriving, sustainable metropolis; world-class architect Renzo Piano's integration of nature into his design for San Francisco’s elegant, environmentally responsive natural history museum; the efforts to rebuild New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward in a way that is environmentally, culturally and socially sustainable; and the visionary Dutch architects transforming recycled materials into modern design masterpieces.

A Garden in Cairo

design season III - episode 1

The Village Architect

design season III - episode 2

Melbourne Reborn

design season III - episode 3

The Art and Science of Renzo Piano

design season III - episode 4

New Orleans: The Water Line

design season III - episode 5

Super Use

design season III - episode 6

e² design season two
Episodes explore: how Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, used urban planning to create alternatives to automobile culture; architect Thom Mayne’s San Francisco Federal Building, a potential model for the workplace of the future; the waterfront development of Borneo Sporenburg in Amsterdam, Holland — high density, suburban-style housing without the sprawl; the Druk White Lotus School in Ladakh, India, an example of sustainable design driven by local culture and materials; the philosophy of developer Jonathan Rose toward affordable housing in New York City; and the tireless crusade of architect Ed Mazria to single-handedly convince the building sector to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030.

The Druk White Lotus School-Ladakh

design season II - episode 1

Greening the Federal Government

design season II - episode 2

Bogotá: Building a Sustainable City

design season II - episode 3

Affordable Green Housing

design season II - episode 4

Adaptive Reuse in the Netherlands

design season II - episode 5

Architecture 2030

design season II - episode 6

e² design season one
The inaugural season, introducing viewers to the burgeoning sustainability movement among architects and designers worldwide. Episodes explore: the rise of sustainable skyscrapers and apartment towers in New York; community-based sustainable construction in Sonora, Mexico and Austin, Texas; the promotion of green building practices by Chicago's city government; recycling construction waste from Boston's "Big Dig" project; China's determination to improve its building practices, and the global ecological risk it poses if it does not; and the environmental leadership of three extraordinary architects — Kenneth Yeang, William McDonough and Werner Sobek.